This is where Josh Turiel deposits his blather about things he's not really qualified to speak of. Those topics typically include technology, politics, professional wrestling, economics, security, business, and parenting.
He owns a small business providing IT support, has a young son, is a card-carrying Bright, serves as an elected official (City Councillor in Salem, MA) and could stand to lose a few pounds. So that's where he's coming from.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

My Treo 700p sucks. I will now clarify that. I have been using a Treo 700p since last June. As a phone, it does do some things well. The handset performance and volume is better than the Treo 650 I had before. Verizon's service is better than Cingular's (even though the CDMA multiple-call management interface is awful), and EVDO is a lifesaver for me on the occasions I need Internet access from my MacBook Pro (I hook up a USB sync cable, set up the modem application, and go to work). It has way more available RAM than the 650, so I can actually store documents on it.

But here's the fundamental problem. It's unstable. Bluetooth connections drop seemingly at random, with only a battery-out reset restoring some semblance of function. I do it every morning as a habit now. Resets also happen a lot during the course of a day, at the end of hotsyncs, and if I get a call just at the moment I try and place a call? Yep, another reset.

Today, Palm finally fessed up to the suckage. In a post on their new corporate blog, Palm's manager of Treo products promised a full firmware update sometime around the end of May. He discussed what it is expected to fix, and some of the reasons why it has taken so long. I still think it's a partial crock, but at least they said definitively that the fix is enroute. I will try and suck it up for another month with the phone (my third one - the first two died).

If I had a better alternative, I would have ditched this months ago, but despite how much the Treo 700p sucks I really can't find any tool that does all this better. And the iPhone would take me back to Cingular, which ain't happening.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Apparently CBS, Inc. has no balls. And I say that in the worst way. As mentioned earlier, of course Imus is an ass. He's been one for thirty-plus years, he says insensitive things about everyone, and that's just how shock jocks work. Since Imus literally invented the genre that the Sterns, Opie and Anthonys, and Bubba the Love Sponges of the world inhabit it's kinda obvious.

And Al Sharpton (the original chest-thumping pimp) has a radio show. After Twana Brawley, Crown Heights, and a host of their offenses. And Rush "Obama Osama" Limbaugh. And all the others.

Les Moonves, you're a wuss. Quit now, because it's now obvious just how much you suck.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Don Imus is definitely a schmuck. He's been one for the last thirty=plus years, though. He's also nearly 70, though, so he ain't changing. Soon enough, he'll say something that some humorless folks will take offense at, and it's not really easy to be an offensive shock jock with a national profile in the YouTube era.

But Al Sharpton taking him to task? Come on now, that's ridiculous! Al Sharpton does not have the moral standing to take anyone to task for a racial statement. And Imus, being a New Yorker, must have remembered that but not had the stones to do anything about it. Were I in Imus' position, and if I had Sharpton on my show to pry more mea culpas out, I would have simply said to him:"

"I said something wrong and stupid, and I apologized within a day once I realized how wrong I was. Funny that you're sitting here calling for my head Al, when you never even apologized for Tawana Brawley and twenty years have passed."

A national radio audience might have been left to go to Wikipedia, but everyone in New York over the age of 35 would know exactly what he meant. Sharpton has never had any credibility whatsoever with me because of that.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Today is Easter Sunday - and most businesses are, as usual, closed for the day. But it's very inconsistent. Circuit City announced that they were closed in their flyer. Sports Authority announced they were open. Most other places said nothing I could discern - so when I went out an hour ago to go to Staples (for a chair) and to Trader Joe's I went 1 for 2. Staples was closed, with no indication on their website or phone that they were closed. Trader Joe's was open (and rather busy).

My take on this is entirely secular (as is my entire life). Right now, there are three days when pretty much all businesses close: Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Two of the three are entirely Christian holidays, so I really see no point in a business closing those days unless all their staff refuses to work (I don't, however, think anyone should be forced to work on a religious holiday). In my commerce world, only two days would have businesses closed: Independence Day and Thanksgiving. Those two are distinctly American holidays, and are (at least theoretically), common to all who reside here.

Obviously, we're in a majority-Christian society, and though I don't take offense at the reality that folks close for Easter I also don't really see the point. To me, and to millions of other people in this nation who are either Brights or of other religions, today is just another Sunday.

Unless, of course, we want to celebrate it as Masters Sunday. Which, as a golf nut, would be fine by me!